Ann Romney, Working Women, and Wealth or Lack of It

There’s an uproar in the news today over a comment by a Democratic strategist that Ann Romney, the wife of Mitt Romney, has “never worked a day in her life.” This wording was clumsy, to say the least. When the contemporary women’s movement began in the late 1960s, one of its key emphases was that women should have the choice as well as the opportunity to live their lives as they want to. If they want to work outside the home, fine; if they want to stay at home and raise kids, fine also. Back then women did not have the opportunity to work outside the home, especially in the jobs that were male-dominated, that they do today. If Ann Romney chose to stay at home and raise her five sons, that was her choice, and no one should think worse of her for it.

But the larger message that the strategist was attempting to make has gotten lost in the uproar. And this message is that women who can afford to stay at home because of their family’s wealth—in this case, great wealth—do not begin to face the everyday problems of time, money (actually lack of money), and energy that the average (i.e., non-wealthy) woman faces, whether or not she works outside the home. And they do not begin to experience the stress and worry that the average woman faces, again whether or not she works outside the home. Ann Romney no doubt is a fine person who has accomplished a lot in her life and who is now facing a debilitating disease. But during her adult life she has not suffered for a lack of money, and she has never had to wonder how she will be able to find the money to pay her family’s medical bills, feed and clothe her children, repair a car, and any number of things that the average woman would have trouble paying.